


Paint With All the Colors

by WhatBecomesOfYou



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-06
Updated: 2013-01-06
Packaged: 2017-11-23 21:40:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/626807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatBecomesOfYou/pseuds/WhatBecomesOfYou





	Paint With All the Colors

"The opening's tomorrow night!" Claudia said, squealing on the phone to Stacey. "Thank you, thank you, thank you for getting this set up for me, Stace! I owe you a nice meal on the town for this. Wherever you want to go."

The phone line crackled a bit, as it sounded as though Stacey was shuffling around some papers. "You're welcome! After seeing you struggle with your art for so long -"

"I wouldn't say I 'struggled' with art. Art was always nice to me."

" _Always_? I could cite some examples from when we were in middle school...remember all those outfits you liked to create?"

"How about you just come to the opening tomorrow night?" Claudia asked, self-consciously touching her peacock feather hoop earrings and glancing down at her bedazzled painters' overalls. "Because then you'll see what those middle school 'struggles' brought me."

"You know I'll be there."

**~*~**

The gallery was a swanky place downtown, much swankier than anything Claudia felt like her art would ever get into - so much for Stacey's connections, she supposed, but that was the benefit of an artist having a lawyer for a best friend and confidante.

The sign was emblazoned with the name of the show - "Visages of the Past" - Claudia couldn't understand why her simple idea of "Faces" just wasn't good enough, but Janine said it meant basically the same thing. So she was happy.

She filed in past the portraits hanging on the wall - Mary Anne's was a formal portrait, painstakingly done from all of the pictures from the Babysitters' Club that she still had after all these years. Kristy's was a human figure as a blur, always moving, never stopping. If you looked closely enough, you could even see a tiny painted-on Krushers cap. 

She looked at all the others - Stacey's was a rich and evocative, yet sleek and sophisticated piece - it looked like it would fit into a modernist living room with ease. And all the others were there - even Mimi, with bursts of pastel pinks and yellows draping the scenery. 

Ashley came up behind her. "Your work is a smash, Claud," she said, embracing Claudia from behind and resting her chin on Claudia's shoulder. "Everyone's raving about how Claudia Kishi is the next great find. But I don't see the one for me."

"It's right there," Claudia said, pointing to an abstract burst of different colors and hues, blues and golds and purples and greens coming together to form one giant colorburst in the middle of the canvas. "I had the worst time with yours - is there an artist's block? Like a writer's block?"

"I guess there could be?"

"I couldn't think of how to do yours for the longest time. There's just so much _to_ you. There always was. But then - it hit me. You _are_ living color; you _are_ art. You're the color that paints my world."

Ashley beamed at Claudia's words and opened her mouth to reply when there was the sound of a throat clearing behind them. "I think I'm going to buy that one," a tall, well-dressed man said, pointing to the Ashley painting, "it would look perfect in my living room."

"It's not for sale."

"But it's -"

Claudia turned to face Ashley and looked her straight in the eye as she told the man again, "I _said_ , it's _not for sale_."

"And _that_ 's final," Ashley chimed in.


End file.
